If every meeting feels like déjà vu, you might be paying interest on decisions you don’t remember making.
On Monday, the team “agreed” to sunset the legacy CSV export. On Tuesday, a different thread reopened it. By Friday, a senior VP asked, “Who decided this?” and the sprint quietly stalled. Nobody was being difficult. The choice just wasn’t captured anywhere durable.
That’s decision debt—choices made informally, remembered vaguely, and revisited endlessly.
How decision debt feels day to day
- You’re busy but not arriving anywhere.
- New opinions appear late and derail “almost done.”
- Ownership gets fuzzy: “Someone else decided this… I think.”
- New hires can’t learn the why, so they repeat old mistakes.
The moment we found the leak
We reviewed a roadmap where “sunset CSV” kept appearing and disappearing. No record of who decided, why, or when to review. The fix wasn’t a tool. It was a habit: write down the decision the moment it happens.
Start a one-page decision log
Keep it light and public. A simple doc or issue works.
Capture:
- What did we decide?
- Why now?
- Who owns the outcome?
- When will we review?
- What would make us reverse this?
If a decision can’t fit on one page, it’s not a decision yet.
Example:
- Decision: “Decommission Legacy CSV Export for Pro plan”
- Why now: “Duplicate analytics; high support cost”
- Owner: “Priya (Product)”
- Review date: “Nov 5”
- Reverse if: “NPS drops below 30 for Pro users or support tickets double”
The 10-minute weekly hygiene
- Review last week’s decisions. Are they still good?
- Close the loop on any that reached review date.
- Highlight one decision that needs visibility. Share it widely.
Ten minutes a week pays back hours of churn.
Meeting moves that pay off
- Name the moment: “We’re deciding now.”
- State the owner: “Alex owns the outcome.”
- Set a check-in: “We’ll review in two weeks.”
- Write it down immediately. Link it in the ticket.
Preventing new debt
- Favor reversible decisions. Move now, revisit soon.
- Default to the smallest choice that moves you forward.
- Make it harder to reopen than to ship the next small slice.
What “good” feels like after two weeks
- Fewer reheated debates; more forward motion.
- Onboarding explains the why, not just the what.
- Confidence rises because choices are visible and owned.
Clarity is a kindness. A small log, kept faithfully, can remove a surprising amount of drag from your team.